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Heirloom Vegetarian

[12/26/15] This year for Boxing Day, I did a little something out of the usual. Instead of squishing in between crowds at jampacked malls and oulets, I treated myself out to a delicious brunch with my lovely friend Cindy, aka CookiesnChem, who was visiting Vancouver from University of Waterloo for the winter holidays. Cindy, if you’re reading this, I miss you already! We better hang out again when you visit in the summer. (:

Since Cindy was coming back for a short while, I let her take the pick of our brunch destination. I was pleasantly surprised when she chose Heirloom because it has been on my wishlist for the longest time.

The Restaurant

It wasn’t as busy as I expected on a Saturday peak hours, but then again, people were probably all shopping. 😛

The restaurant was a wide open space divided into two sections. On one side was the main dining area, the other was a lounge with high tables accommodating smaller groups like us. In the middle was a kitchen area where the baristas made drinks, and the bar is situated in the back.

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Being a vegetarian restaurant, the menu comprised of a wide variety of vegetarian options. On the flip side of the menu were lots of vegan-friendly items- I was surprised by how many they had! They serve brunch/lunch as well as dinner, and they had an extensive drink menu too.

The Food

We had a hard time deciding on what we wanted, everything just sounded so delectable!

London Fog– $4.75 (2.5/5)

Cindy thought this was somewhat watery and not creamy enough. It was lacking of a vanilla flavour and I noticed that she added heaps of sugar to sweeten it.

This is the dish Cindy ordered, which she loved. It came in a huge plate with a large green salad on the side. Sitting atop the bed of veggie hash were the quinoa fritters. These were crunchy on the outside, while soft on the inside. The texture and flavour resemble falafels, except it was grainier and nuttier. On the edge were dollops of their vegan hollandaise beautifully presented, which was tangy and creamy.

Originally a vegetarian option, I made some alterations to have it turned vegan. Instead of the scrambled eggs, I asked for a substitution, and I went sans goat cheese. However, I still found lumps of goat cheese, so I suggest that if you have any intolerance, you should emphasize more to the staff. Regardless, this was absolutely scrumptious! I was quite hungry at the time, so I totally devoured it. I was shocked by how similar to eggs their scrambled tofu were! After inquiring our server, we found out that it was seasoned with nutritional yeast for that eggy cheesy taste. The colourful mix of veggies added flavour and textural interest to the dish- I especially loved the artichokes, which isn’t an extremely common ingredient used in veggie scrambles. This came with a green salad as well, and along with the protein-packed quinoa, it made a very substantial meal.

Vegan Brownie– $9.95 (3/5)

We split this dessert in half and it came presented with apple and banana slices. In between each piece of “brownie” and on top, is a chocolate ganache. If you guys have ever tasted a Lara bar, this is exactly what it tastes like. For those of you who don’t know, Lara bars are snack bas consisting of only nuts and seeds, and sweetened with dates. With that said, the texture was rather rough, unlike the usually fluffiness of a brownie, and it’s super sweet! The chocolate ganache is made with a questionable ingredient- avocado, but it totally worked because the it turned out super creamy and chocolatey.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I had a pleasant experience at Heirloom. The service was friendly, but our server didn’t seem to be very knowledgeable of the dishes there.. When we had questions about their food, he had to repeatedly go back to the kitchen to get the answers. 😛 Our dishes also took a while, although we were informed that it would be a 40-50 minute wait. The price range is on the higher end, but it’s a great place to indulge in if you’re looking for unique vegetarian and vegan meals.

Happy 2016 everyone! It has seriously been a while hasn’t it? Sorry for the long break again.. something came up and I was really not in the right place, so I took some time off to recover and pick myself back up. But now I’m back! Hope you’re all doing well, and please keep an eye out for many more blog posts in the new year! As always, thanks for reading. (:

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2 thoughts on “Heirloom Vegetarian”

This is definitely a place I’d love to visit if I ever come to Canada! So cool (but I’m also really jelly!) that you got to meet up with Cindy, a fellow blogger! Everything looks so tasty and fresh here!